criticism

In teaching acting, or in giving workshops, I also teach feedback, or specific criticism.



In the Intro to Theater class I teach, the students are required to attend three plays and write reviews of these plays.





My instructions are to choose an aspect of the production, such as acting, directing, scenic design or costume design, and write about how that aspect aided or did not aid in that production's realizing the vision/message of the play.

Each semester, I find ways to further refine instructions to guide students to seeing and evaluating the performer's art.

I am trying to get closer to providing a template for meaningful criticism of the production, not the play; of these particular actors' performances, not the characters.

I try to guide students to choose an aspect of the production, such as scenic design or costume design, where choice of line, color, texture, pattern are easier to distinguish. Do color and shape set a mood of light-heartedness or shadow? Does the costume tell you where the play is, in time and space? Do the setting and costumes work together to tell you if the play is striving for realism, abstraction, or fantasy?

It is easy to get drawn in by the acting, but harder to critique the actor's work. Like the director's work, the actor's work is ephemeral, hard to describe, hard to find that specific moment and describe what made it work.

For me, the best criticism gives the theater artist constructive information about what is suceeding and about what needs improvement in the creative work. While it is nice to hear "You were great!" such grand, vague comments give one no more to build on than a general negative comment.

Ghosts

My youth theater troupe is about to embark on our latest production: Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen, translated by Lanford Wilson.

The small cast, realistic style and incredibly timely themes make this an excellent work for intense acting development and development of ensemble.

Ibsen shocked the world with this play in the late 19th century. In an era notorious for repressing all matters sexual, Ibsen wrote candidly about adultery, syphilis, incest and mental illness. He wrote complex characters struggling with society's stated values of fidelity and loyalty and self-sacrifice-- and the realities of infidelity, pyschological cruelty and betrayal of trust.

I am excited to work with Wilson's translation. Lanford Wilson is an outstanding playwright on his own merits, winning the New York Drama Critic's Circle Award, the Obie Award and the Pulitzer Prize in Playwrighting. One of Wilson's great strength is his wonderful ear for dialogue.

I am planning significant work on actor development and ensemble development during the rehearsal process.